Image: RiverBrink Art Museum
RiverBrink Art Museum is highlighting Amy Friend’s exhibition ‘Leave a Light on For Me’, a project that turns to lighthouses, darkness, oceans and weather as visual cues for connection. According to the museum’s exhibition text, Friend works in photography and installation to respond to selected historical artworks in RiverBrink’s collection, with particular attention to dramatic weather scenes and scenes tied to specific historical moments.
The exhibition is framed by Friend’s own statement that ‘Leave a Light On for Me’ considers uncertainty as an ongoing condition, resisting fixed conclusions while remaining attentive to gestures of care, hope and reciprocity. She describes the project as asking what it means to stay present within the revolving conditions of life. The museum’s materials present that statement as part of the exhibition’s interpretive context rather than as a separate program or event.
RiverBrink, based in Queenston, Ontario, uses its current exhibitions page and email newsletter to present the show alongside a wider slate of public programming. The museum’s newsletter also notes that its Studio Gallery is in its second season, showing a new group of artists each month in the Coach House at RiverBrink Art Museum. Those monthly presentations are separate from the Amy Friend exhibition.
A curator-led event is also tied directly to the exhibition. ‘Coffee with the Curator’ is scheduled for August 7 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and is led by RiverBrink Director/Curator Debra Antoncic. The museum says the informal tour will begin with a brief introduction to Friend and her work, followed by a walk through the exhibition and light refreshments.
Friend’s installation is one of several exhibitions and workshops listed in the same RiverBrink communication, but the museum’s description of ‘Leave a Light on For Me’ stands on its own as the main exhibition announcement. The visual language of lighthouses, weather and ocean imagery points to the way Friend has translated a response to the historic collection into a contemporary installation setting, using photography and installation as her chosen media.
RiverBrink’s newsletter also identifies the exhibition image credit as ‘Amy Friend: When you are beyond 37 miles’. No further curatorial details, checklist information or exhibition dates are provided in the source material, but the museum’s current programming places the show within a dense calendar that includes workshops, membership events and the annual Installation Art Festival, scheduled for September 5 and 6 under the theme ‘Myth’.
